Social Media Platform Feature – Live.me

Live.me is a live broadcasting app that allows users to interact with other users and social influencers ‘live’. The app provides video-broadcasting features with interactive stickers with face-mapping technology that allows the user to interact with the audience in creative ways. Users can purchase virtual “gifts” like emoji for their favorite influencer. Social media integrations allow users to share their favorite broadcasts to their friends across the most popular social apps.

Live.me is majority owned by Cheetah Mobile, which is listed on NYSE and best known for utility apps such as Clean Master, Battery Doctor and Speed Booster. Overall, Cheetah claims more than 620 million monthly users of its 20-plus services, with around 80 percent of its traffic outside of China.

Whom do we cater to?

Live.me is a global platform which caters to anyone who wants to use video as a channel to make new friends, broadcast their talent or engage with their friends, family and fans in a lively, fun and fruitful manner. We celebrate the expression of creativity!

What do we offer to our consumers?

India has millions of artists spread throughout the country across different mediums and genres, but most of these artists are unable to display their talent beyond their own cities and towns. Live.me is the perfect platform for these artists to expand their reach, not only to audiences across India, but across the world. For general users, Live.me is an amazing platform to connect with friends and family, make new friends, chat with celebrities or watch their favorite talent.

What motivated us to start up?

When it comes to making products, we have always believed in giving priority to our users’ needs and making their mobile experience smarter. Though there are many social apps in the world, we always find them lacking in their ability to connect people across borders in an engaging and meaningful manner. Users tend to remain confined in their own social media circles with the same old text and photo based mode of communication. Live.me aims to bridge this gap by connecting people across the globe using live videos and let them learn and experience different cultures and lifestyles. An Indian user can chat, make friends and engage with users from United States or other countries at the comfort of their home using our international, multi-lingual and cross-cultural platform.

What’s in a name?

At Cheetah Mobile, we have always believed in naming our products in a way users find easy to connect with and which conveys our main idea in a simple and engaging way. Live.me is one such example in which users can broadcast their “me” Live social moments to the audience across the globe. We hope to place the users at the forefront of this experience.

How do we see Social Media? Industry as we foresee

With close to 400 million internet users in India, social media usage is growing rapidly. It has become an integral part of people’s daily lives and more and more people are now relying on social media apps for connecting with friends & family and sharing live updates. The usage has grown significantly in past few months with the decline in mobile data charges after the entry of Reliance Jio to provide really economical 4G mobile connections. This has also led to high consumption of online video content, especially live videos, which is emerging as a new form of content. We are expecting a rapid increase in live streaming and interactions in coming months among Indian users. Many brands are also focusing on live video as a new form of engagement with consumers as it provides a better ROI – higher engagement rates and lower cost per engagement.

Currently we are….

Live.me has demonstrated a track record of strong growth in user numbers, user engagement and number of paying users, particularly in the U.S. market. About 80% of our users come from United States and we are growing fast in other markets in Europe and Asia. The app ranks within the top five social apps in the Apple App Store and is the top grossing social app on Google Play, according to data provided by app intelligence firm App Annie.

Our biggest challenge was..

Every day at Live.me we create a number of new ideas to help improve and grow Live.me and the challenge is to select nine out of 10 ideas to put on hold so that we can focus on that one perfect idea and roll it out with perfection. The hardest part would be making the decision on what ideas not to pursue right away.

We want to dominate the world by..

In the beginning of May, we announced a $60 million funding for Live.me from a range of China-based investors that include Matrix Partners China, Evolution Media China, Gobi Partners, IDG Capital and Welight Capital. This partnership with top financial institutions has provided us with the resources to build Live.me into a global social community. The funds will be invested in technology and operations to grow the service in the U.S. and other international markets.

We’re making moolah by…

The economy of Live.me is based around coins, which fans can use to buy virtual diamonds for their favorite influencers. Once users pass certain benchmarks, they can convert diamonds into cash. There’s also our new commerce engine, which allows selected broadcasters to sell merchandise and monetize from being live streaming. As for us, we monetized from the commission charged at the time of purchasing coins and redeeming diamonds.

Our What The **** Moment

We have had several interesting moments on Live.me when users broadcast their funny stories or do live comedy shows on our platform. You can find some users playing pranks with their friends, doing some funny acts or even engaging in live face painting on Live.me.

Lastly, are you hiring?

As we continue to expand our user base and engagement in India, we definitely plan to hire more people across the product and operations functions in India.